Budget cash for college buildings

Colleges complain plans are stuck "in limbo"

An extra £300m is being put into a college building scheme in England which was hit by a funding crisis caused by poor management.

The Chancellor pledged the budget cash to the colleges building programme, which was criticised by an inquiry.

Projects at 144 colleges were put on hold after the funding body, the LSC, ran out of money.

Ministers admit the funds will help a limited number of colleges but say they will create jobs and help students.

The £300m will be spent over the next two years and officials say it will go on the most urgent improvements.

Other money has been pledged for the three subsequent years - bringing the total planned investment in college building in England to £1.2bn over the next five years.

However, the money will only cover about a third of the projects already approved in principle - and falls short of the billions needed to meet all the colleges' proposals.

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was criticised in an inquiry by Sir Andrew Foster for approving schemes it did not have money to fund.

Colleges had invested their own money or funds raised locally in developing their plans.

The LSC's head, Mark Haysom, resigned, admitting mistakes had been made.

In his report earlier this month, Sir Andrew said there had been no attempt to prioritise projects.

The LSC is now consulting on what criteria should be used to prioritise schemes and projects should be approved in June, according to officials at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Science (Dius).

Dius estimates that the new funding pledge should allow in the region of 25 projects to go ahead in the next five years.

It will only deal with a limited number of the projects that already have approval in principle

Dr John Dunford, ASCL

Martin Doel, the chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC) welcomed the money for the sector: "We are pleased that government has pledged extra support for college building projects at such a difficult time.

"Completed projects have already been proved to be of great benefit to students, business and communities so this new money will be widely welcomed.

"The challenge now is to ensure that funds are spent in the most effective manner - which will include helping colleges who have been put in financial difficulties by the freeze on building projects."

The general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Dr John Dunford said: "The additional money to support the further education college capital programme is very welcome.

"However it will only deal with a limited number of the projects that already have approval in principle. We will urge the government to continue to build on the funding announced today for this very important programme over the next few years."

Billions

On top of the £300m of new money pledged for the next two years, the Chancellor also confirmed future capital spending of £300m for 2011/12 and the two subsequent years, adding up to a total of £1.2bn over the next five years.

In his report on the funding crisis, Sir Andrew Foster said an extra £2.7bn would be needed to cover the 79 projects which had received the first stage of approval in principle from the LSC.

And a further £3bn would be needed for the 65 colleges that had submitted proposals for approval in principle.

Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills John Denham said: "This budget is further proof of the government's commitment to invest in the skills, talent and science base of this nation in order to help people through the downturn and help us emerge stronger in the future.

"In particular the new funds announced for the college building programme is good news. It won't fund every college that has a proposed scheme but it will enable us to give the go ahead to some of the colleges with the greatest and most urgent need, delivering better facilities and an estimated 3000 jobs on the ground."